A Night of TV I’ll Never Forget

It was the night before Halloween, 1978. A Saturday night, hanging out with best friend Jimmy McCann (who now reviews CDs for Icon Fetch). We’re plopped on the floor in front of the tube, while cuss words, and the smell of cigarettes and alcohol flow in from the next room, where both sets of parents are playing cards. We were waiting for Kiss to come on television.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t much of a Kiss fan at that time. But, NBC had hyped the hell out of the movie, so, even as kids, we were well aware that tonight was the night…Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. I had seen pictures of Kiss, but nothing compared to watching them on screen. The fact that they had super powers just added to it. We were so hyped, dancing around the living room. Watching the movie today, I can’t tell you what the hell I saw in it then…Kiss isn’t even in the first 30 minutes and their acting is laughably bad (Paul Stanley: “You’re lookin’ for someone, but it’s not Kiss”). Doesn’t matter…we thought it was cool. In fact, we were so jazzed up after that, that our folks let us stay up and watch Saturday Night Live, which they NEVER did. I distinctly remember watching the Rolling Stones perform songs from the Some Girls album. But, what I really remember is Mick Jagger trying to French Kiss members of the band. Don’t believe me? Click here to watch them do “Respectable” on SNL. Kiss and the Stones in one night…doesn’t get any better than that.